My Limited Powerset
by amakir393
Summary: Samuel currently has one superpower. He has a personal hammer space, or an inventory. After a chance encounter with a homicidal rabbit, he fins himself within his inventory and finds out its a bit bigger than he previously thought. He now has a chance to travel to different universes, and probably should have been better at reading the fine print before he opened his first door.


As a child, Samuel had often dreamed about what it would be like to have superpowers. As an adult who woke up one day with them, he could now safely say it wasn't all that exciting. His power was rather simple. Not super flashy, just a bit of limited alternate-dimensional spatial modification. That's what Samuel liked to refer to it as. It might be a bit easier to understand if you referred to it as an inventory, a personal hammer space one might say. As far as he could tell, it was unlimited in its capacity, but he hadn't put anything larger than a backpack into it. He did however store his entertainment materials in it, and he did have quite a bit. Even living things survived in his inventory. One weird rule he found while using it: there had to be an opening of some kind. Like a bag, or a pocket, the brim of a top hat.

Thinking back on the event that had led to that particular discovery, Samuel had to laugh. It involved a bet he had lost, one about a goat and Aberforth Dumbledore, and ended with him being forced to enter a talent show doing stage magic. Samuel didn't actually have any talent as a stage magician, and had suspected that was why it had been chosen as his punishment. He stood before the crowd, and was attempting to pull a rabbit from his hat. This was something he had never really gotten the hang of, but it was on the required list of tricks from losing the bet. He started to freak out, as the rabbit wasn't actually in the hat, and he had no idea where it had gone. The audience seemed to assume that it was all part of the act, as Samuel repeatedly thrust his hand into the hat and shook it trying to get the rabbit to come back out. Looking over towards the audience, he finally shrugged and continued on with the rest of his show. It was going rather well, and near the end, Samuel remembered his inventory and wondered if the rabbit had somehow made it into it. His hat was upon his head, and Samuel opened a portal into it and took a bow. As he had hoped, the hat came tumbling off his head as the rabbit came out and ran off. The would-be magician stood for a moment, reveling in the applause, until he realized that he should probably go and catch the rabbit before it got too far away.

If Samuel was being honest with himself, he wasn't too sure why he chased after the rabbit. It wasn't that important, someone else must have been closer, or better at chasing the animal. There he was with the power to bend space into a personal storage place, and he'd thought the best use of his time was to chase a rabbit off a stage.

Samuel left the show early, and started to walk home. It was late, and the streets were fairly empty. He came up to the crosswalk and almost started crossing when a semi-truck came around the corner a little faster than normal and barely missed him. He'd have been concerned, but he mostly caught himself thinking about how sad he was that he'd not found the missing rabbit before his almost assured demise. After standing for a moment and contemplating the missing animal rather than his potential death, Samuel continued on his way home. Along the way there was a bridge that he would have to cross to reach where he lived. He started to walk across it, when he then found himself falling towards the water below.

To this day, Samuel had no idea how that rabbit was able to push him over the railing. All he knew was that damn rabbit was watching him as he fell. It was official: Samuel hated stage magic.

* * *

It was strange. Time really did seem to slow down as Samuel fell towards the water below. He seemed to have all the time in the world to think about how his day had started. How did that rabbit even get into the inventory? It wasn't like Samuel had tried putting anything living in one before. He knew it was at least safe now for other animals, not that it would matter for too much longer. The first sign that living things could have survived his hammer space was how his arm did just fine in the inventory when it was open.

At this, Samuel attempted to slap his forehead, with the winds rushing around him causing him to miss his head. He pulled his backpack off his shoulders and opened it. It was a tight squeeze, but Samuel was able to force himself through the opening and into his inventory. After standing up, Samuel looked around, and saw an opening back into the sky where he had been falling. He reached through and zipped it closed, not wanting water to come through to where he currently was. It was only after he had gotten the bag closed, and the portal back home was gone, did Samuel look around. There he stood in a bare room with four corridors leading away from him.

'_Ok, not exactly what I was expecting.'_

Samuel was unsure which way was considered north, so he arbitrarily pointed at one.

"That way is now north. At least, until I can find a compass, a window, the sun...anything really, there's not much other than cement walls, floors and ceilings."

The trip towards the north didn't take very long at all. After a short plain hallway, Samuel ran into another corridor. This one ran perpendicular to the one he had just come from, and had several doors leading off of it. He walked up to one and opened the door. It was a simple bedroom. A plain bed, a desk with a chair, a set of bookshelves, a closet, even a small bathroom. He walked out, and checked the other doors nearby. There was a laundry room, kitchen, other bedrooms, and what looked like a common game room with a couch. Samuel closed all of the doors, and made his way back to the original junction he had arrived at. It was then he came to a sudden realization.

'_I've been paying $1600 a month for an apartment almost just like what I found here. I could have lived here? This is not acceptable, what kind of joke is this.'_

Still fuming at his potential newfound living arrangements, Samuel turned into one of the other hallways, only to walk into a room that was the size of a small warehouse. It was lined with shelves, and on some of them he could recognize his belongings that were usually stored in his inventory.

'_So this is where everything always was. There's enough room for a like several cars. I wonder if I could get one into here through a garage door or something. Food for thought I suppose.'_

Not seeing much else to look at here, Samuel returned to the beginning once more and turned down the third path. He found a small room, with a podium in it. In front of the podium was some kind of television or computer screen, and on the podium was a letter and a thick book. Samuel opened the letter and began to read

"Samuel,

This is your subconscious speaking to you. Well, not really. I'm actually the entire complex you have found yourself in. I'm you, only not a loser. You're me, just less awesome. If you need proof, look down at the book again. I have a photo that should help."

At this, Samuel looked down to see a photo had appeared on top of the book. He took one look at the photo, set down the letter, then calmly ripped up the photo. He proceeded to read the rest of the letter.

"Now, I'm sure you ripped the photo up, and we can all agree that wasn't one of our best moments. We were still young though, it can be forgiven. How were we to know our mother had a camera ready for something like this? Anyway, on to the good stuff. As I'm sure your luck is still the same, you probably haven't gotten to the last section of the complex. I call it the Hallway of Doors.

Obviously, it is lined with doors, but these doors are special. They lead to universes that you would previously would have only thought of as fictional. It seems your universe was full of Dreamers, people who could see into the other universe while asleep, and then wrote or drew them while awake. You however are more like a Traveler. You can't really see the others until you get there. So that's where the doors go. There waiting for you. So get going. What's in it for me you ask? Well I get stronger as you do, it's a form of adaptability we possess. You'll also change a bit with each universe you travel to, so you can fit in a bit better. Aso, while you're here, you're safe. Out there...well let's just say I'd rather you not die out there. If you go, so do I. Don't worry about finding the right door. The more you want a door, the faster it'll find itself for you.

Too long, didn't read? You can travel through the multiverse. Have fun, don't die.

Sincerely, Other Samuel"

At this point, the letter was already floating to the ground, Samuel already running for the last hallway, already knowing which door he was looking for. He almost slipped as he turned the last corner, doors already coming into view. The names on the doors were flying past his eyes: Skyrim, My Hero Academia, Lord of the Rings, Eragon, Harry Potter, Pokemon, Geneforge, Percy Jackson and the…

Samuel came to a skidding stop and went back a couple of doors. The door before his was like all the others, a simple stainless steel, doorknob, and what looked like a touch screen in the center at eye level. He tried to rip open the door, but some warning popped up on the screen.

'_I don't have time for this,'_ Samuel thought furiously. He slapped whatever he needed to to get the warning to go away, kinda like those terms and services contracts you never actually read, and the door finally opened and Samuel rushed in. At this point the letter had finally stopped drifting to the floor, and had flipped over during its fall. On the back was a final note, a postscript.

"Oh, and d be sure not to skip the pop up on the doors. Those are control settings for detailed entry into the universe. Might be in for a nsaty surprise if you ignore them."


End file.
